Most Wanted is a weekly series in which one editor, staffer, or influencer shares their top 30 must-haves or current wish-list items.
After a long, long winter—most of which I spent in Minnesota—I'm ready for a change of season, not only in terms of my climate but also in terms of my beauty MO. Even though summer is usually the season we associate with a complete product overhaul, I've been feeling impatient. Hints of spring and summer are officially in the air, and I'm ready to hit the ground running by amping up my beauty aesthetic as well.
Once the UV index starts to climb, I like to focus on certain parts of my routine, like my lips, eyes, hair, and skin. These are the features I like to play up and ensure are in tip-top shape once spring and summer roll around. If you, like me, would like to get ahead of the curve for the warmer, sunnier seasons ahead, keep scrolling. Thirty beauty staples I'd recommend buying sooner rather than later are just below.
Lips
Viva MAC Lipglass is an iconic rite of passage for anyone born in the '90s and a perfectly light-catching staple for anyone who wants their lips to glow like a supermodel's. I'm partial to Very Go Lightly, a prismatic champagne.
As far as lip treatments go, this is the latest formula to get your hands on. Beautifully packaged, this buttery elixir teems with skin-identical ceramides and vegan cholesterol to help reactivate the skin's lamellar matrix and skin barrier. The end result is soft, supremely hydrated lips that actually stay that way. Unlike most heavy-duty lip treatments, it's crafted with noncomedogenic ingredients, so I don't wake up to bumps and breakouts around my mouth.
Just when I think I've found my holy-grail lip liner, a new one comes along to take its place. Currently, said newcomer is this creamy, transfer-resistant number from Hourglass. The shade Uncover 4 is my ride-or-die.
I've gone through at least three of these—not because I actually ever hit empty but because I make the fatal mistake of handing it to a friend for a shine top-up and they ultimately refuse to give it back. If you want a lip oil that looks and performs better than its counterparts four times the price, this is your best bet. Beware: The shade Jam Session will become a fixation, so I'd recommend buying five.
This is not a new product by any means, but I slept on it for years despite hearing plenty of fellow beauty editors wax poetic about its uncanny lip-staining ability. Essentially, it's like a cheaper, more temporary alternative to lip blushing. Paint it on (yes, it comes out as a metallic royal blue, and you will look like a space alien), let it sit, then swipe off with a damp washcloth. You're left with perfectly stained lips that look completely natural. It's the most low-lift alternative when I don't want to bother with lipstick or other maintenance-heavy lip products.
I talk about this plumping lip mask all the time, so I apologize if you're sick of hearing about it. That said, it is and always will be the only lip product I wear to bed, and it's my favorite daytime lip topper as well. The shine! The plumpness! I'm basically wearing it 24/7 and have worked my way through at least 10 pots. Birthday Cake is the best.
Eyes
Just wait until you see the difference this liner makes when you use it to rim the inner and outer corners (waterline only!) of your eyes.
I'm not a huge eye shadow gal, but if I'm wearing it, I want it to be shimmery but not too shimmery, and I want it to make me look like Lily-Rose Depp. These new reflective shadows from Make Beauty satiate the craving.
I categorize my life into two different eras: before lash serums and after lash serums. I've tried practically every formula under the sun, including prescriptions like Latisse, and am happy to conclude that this one from Olaplex is truly the best.
An oldie but a goodie! This strange-looking rod has been in my makeup lineup for years, yet I've never found any other product that can rival its lash-lengthening effect. I know lots of products claim to be "extensions in a bottle," but this one quite literally is. It won't give you much thickness, but if you're after doe-like lashes that could land you a starring role in a Disney movie, go ahead and invest in this.
I love liquid liner and have flirted with plenty of formulas over the years. Many disappointments later, this perfectly sized pen from KVD Beauty has come out on top and is now the gold standard I compare all others to. I waffle between the brown and the black, and I appreciate that the rich pigment—and my precise application—doesn't deteriorate through the day or night. On the off chance I fall asleep with makeup on, I'll wake up to eyes that are still perfectly lined.
If you're not curling your lashes, this is your sign to start. As someone with very large, round eyes and lashes prone to major droopage, this model is the best I've tried. I no longer bother with others.
The consistency of this formula might take some getting used to—it's thick and a bit tacky, and it looks wildly iridescent straight out of the tube. Once you see its brightening and tightening benefits take hold of your eye area, you really won't care. The magic ingredients are 0.07% retinol and a unique Liquid Crystal Technology, which gives the product the look of unicorn blood.
Hair
Meet the new dry shampoo that every beauty editor I know has been fawning over. Per usual, Dae has hit it out of the park with this non-aerosol volumizing dry shampoo that is truly transparent. This is a necessity that was lost on me until I went from platinum blonde to copper hair last year—no ashy cast here!
I've been using the copper shade of this top-rated gloss to revive my color-treated strands and oomph up my shine between salon appointments, but the sheer version is also great if you're not looking for any type of tint. This formula is impossible to mess up, and the gloss and smoothness you get post-treatment are really unbelievable. I turned my 76-year-old mom—who's always complaining that her fine, color-treated strands feel like straw—onto the dark brown, and now, she's equally obsessed.
I have a few hair treatments I cycle through and love, but my most used one for the last few months has been Epres. No other hair treatment has delivered both the instantaneous and long-term benefits quite like this one has! It's been game-changing, and post-wash, your hair will look and feel silkier. It has also really helped diminish the out-of-control breakage I was having back when I was blonde.
I've used hair towels for years, knowing that it's an incredibly important swap in the name of hair health. That said, when I switched from my former model to this one from Act+Acre, my hair became noticeably softer, smoother, and easier to manage. Coincidence? I think not! It's like a cuddly teddy bear for your strands.
For sleek, glass-like strands without the greasiness, I've been loving this lightweight smoothing oil from R+Co Bleu.
Machete makes the prettiest hair clips and accessories. They're all I want to wear!
I don't like the feeling of product in my hair after I style, so I slept on this texturizing spray for far longer than I'd like to admit as a beauty director, which was stupid because it almost feels like nothing on your strands. Anyway, since that first use when it looked like I had three times as much hair, I've been head-over-the-heels obsessed with this stuff.
Summer always wreaks havoc on my hair. And, since I'm still working *very* hard to rehabilitate my strands back to health after years of incessant bleaching, I keep this best-selling hair growth supplement on standby.
Body
I'm not a lover of body scrubs, as I find they're too harsh and abrasive on my skin, but this option from True Botanicals—which is specifically meant for the bum—is really, really nice. It's become the in-shower ritual I didn't know I needed.
To each their own, but I'm diligent about keeping everything as smooth and hair-free as I can down there. I've been a fan of Flamingo's line of shaving and body essentials forever, and this thoughtfully curated pubic routine is my latest godsend. It comes with one Pubic Razor Handle and an additional cartridge, one shower holder, pubic exfoliating shave gel (game-changing), and a restorative post-shave gel.
I have flirted with natural deodorants for years, but ultimately, I can never make a freaking commitment. Either they don't deodorize, or my body somehow adapts, and they stop working for me after a few months. This one, however, has me in a monogamous relationship. It smells terrifyingly good—I have Havana, which smells like it could be a floral-woodsy $300 perfume if it wanted to be. It glides onto your underarms with zero stickiness or chalky clumps. It actually keeps me smelling fresh, and, like I mentioned, expensive for a full 24 hours, even through a workout.
Let me just say… This stuff is not for the faint of heart. It's spicy with a capital S and basically feels like you slathered jalapeño juice all over your skin. Therefore, be careful where you tread, my friends. That said, the Brazilian ingredients, guarana being the star of the show, really do help firm and tighten, and the host of other moisturizing and antioxidant-rich additions lock in supple texture and moisture.
Glow
I'm never scared to volunteer as tribute when it comes to the self-tanning category. It's a practice I've been honing ever since middle school, after all. Sometimes, though, the results are much more favorable than others. After a recent stint of duds, this top-rated formula from Coco & Eve has reinstitute my faith in the self-tanning industry again. The color is great, and it absorbs and dries quickly but not so quickly that you don't have enough time to blend and spread. Additionally, the smell is maybe one of the least offensive I've experienced, and it actually looked freshly applied on my skin for almost a week. A great tan does amazing things for my self-esteem, so this is going to be a regular in my rotation.
For years, the mere idea of slathering on a facial oil gave me an immediate jump scare. I think anyone with a history of bad acne will say the same. These days, I know my way around the facial oil category a bit more, and I also know starving your skin of hydration is only going to exacerbate acne. I've tried a few oils that play well with my skin, and I'll incorporate them into my routine when I feel like I need them, but this new (dare I say bionic?) oil from U Beauty blows them out of the water. I love using it daily as a part of my gua sha routine, and the smart mix of natural astaxanthin (a powerhouse antioxidant), vegan squalane, hyaluronic acid, peptides, and stabilized vitamins C and E have quite literally transformed my complexion. It's the closest thing I've found to the fountain of youth.
What can I say other than this stuff is just super decadent? I steer clear of heavy oils that leave me feeling greasy, so this one, which is lightweight but still feels rich and yummy, is the perfect option for me. Plus, it makes your skin glow like a sunbeam—a perk I'm quite partial to.
Yes, I recommend following everyone's advice on TikTok and using this luminizer as a complexion primer, but it's also the absolute best when you use it to highlight other areas of the body like your chest, collarbones, and shoulders. I saw makeup artist Vanessa Stern combine it with the above elixir from Caudalie, and I have never thrown my credit card at two beauty products faster.
If you've never tried Mutha's cult-loved Body Butter, you are seriously missing out. It's beloved for a reason, and it's remained on the top shelf of my vanity for years. The only thing that could ever replace the OG formula—especially once spring and summer roll around—is this Glow version, which has a subtle hint of shimmering bronze that makes you feel like a long-lost Jenner sibling.
